Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Shows were okay. I was in the Beer Garden for most of GZA so I couldn't really feel the crowd out, but pretty much everyone there was going nuts. As for the cool kids, I was smack dab in the middle of the crowd and was surrounded my kids (seriously.. like highschoolers.. i felt really old) and some really annoying ones started chanting "Wu-Tang". I couldn't figure out if they were heckling, or if they genuinely thought they were watching Wu-Tang, but I was annoyed nonetheless. Then one of the speakers cut out mid way through their set, but I don't think they realized it cause they kept on rapping and wondering why half the crowd wasn't feeling them. The speaker came back on about 20sec before their last song ended. So I was disappointed, but besides that it was a beautiful day and the crowds showed up in huge numbers.

On my way to Dundas Square I was trying to find a Tim Hortons (there used to be one across the street from city hall, but it's disappeared) anyway, I ended up stumbling upon the MMVA's. There were SOOOOO many screaming girls freaking out over the Jonas Brothers it was nuts. So i got the fuck out of there and headed back to the square.

All in all it's been a great weak, but I'm glad it's over... it's been music overload (if that's possible) over the last 5 days. I'm exhausted.

Check out some really amazing pictures from some of the events we caught, and some we didn't via CityTV. (there are some great pics of Crystal Antlers, we'll be posting our interview with them once we find the correct firewire cord ;)

So we pretty much all started Day 4 off with no sleep.Sorry we haven't gotten Day 3 and 4's Diary video up... but we haven't had any time to edit the videos.

Anyway, Day 4 started off on the wrong foot. I didn't get to see Mika Miko or Matt and Kim on the night/morning of Day 3/4 because I had to get home to prepare for Day 4's interviews. We only had time to really prep for the Crystal Antlers interview because of all the other shit we had going on, and in the end we ended up canceling the Holler! Wild Rose Interview (it was okay though, we talked to them later on that day and they were cool with it... btw you guys, they're super nice and they're music is super awesome and chill and you should check them out! or check out the previous interview we've done with them). We did the Toronto Recording Academy Interview with Lynn, which went well. You won't see that Interview anytime soon though, we've got to edit the video, but first we have to find the right firewire cord.

After that we jetted 'cross town to the Marriot to meet Crystal Antlers. (At which time I had a panic attack, because I usually never do interviews -- I prefer to edit the videos etc-- and I felt so under-prepared for the interview). Then we met their manager who was really nice and the rest of the guys who were hungover/Cali chill and everything went as smooth as a babies ass (except for some camera issues). But, all in all the interview went great. Then we chilled/smoked/chatted for a while with Damian and some other dudes in a Brooklyn band (they didn't live in Williamsburg though, lol.. they can't afford that area) then headed over to Dundas Square to watch Crystal Antlers perform. They, as expected rocked hard, but the miserable whether kept the crowds away and the audio quality was rubbish (by no fault of their own) so they encouraged people to check them out at Sneaky Dee's... where I'm sure they turned it up and went fucking crazy (I'll be looking for that vid on youtube).

We were meant to go to the Sneaky Dee's Show, and had all intentions of staying downtown all day, but Angela and I were just too exhausted, and val broke loose after the interveiws so, we were all running on empty and decided to pack it in, skip the Sonics and Crystal Antlers show and head home. I fell asleep at 7pm and didn't wake up till today.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

So day 4 of NXNE (Saturday) is going to be a big day. We'll be taking in the Secret Sessions shows as well as interviewing a couple of bands(Holler! Wild Rose and Crystal Antlers) and talking to the people down at the Toronto Recording Academy about why they put the Secret Sessions together and what goes on exactly at the studio.

We caught Coeur de Pirate's gig at Dakota Tavern yesterday evening. There was a ridiculous line up outside trying to get into the little bar (which was over capacity), so unfortunately not everyone made it in for her show. Nicole and I were allowed to go in but we missed the first 2 or 3 songs of her set, so we only got to see her perform the two below (which were amazing btw).

I thought I'd post this up for the people that were unable to get in. The tavern was dimly lit so it's a bit difficult to see anything besides the small Christmas lights they had up, but the audio quality is great.